X-Men: First Class: Review

IMDb

Title: X-Men: First Class

Distributor: 20th Century Fox

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Writer(s): Ashley Miller (screenplay), Zack Stentz (screenplay)

Staring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Kevin Bacon, Rose Byrne, Jennifer Lawrence

MPAA Rating: PG -13

Running Time: 132 min

Synopsis: In 1963, Charles Xavier starts up a school and later a team, for humans with superhuman abilities. Among them is Erik Lensherr, his best friend... and future archenemy.

What Others Are Saying?

Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter: 70% (Fresh), Top Critics: 86% (Fresh), Audience: 88% (Like It)

Metacritic: Critics: 65 out of 100, Users: 8.0 out of 10

MRQE Metric: 76 out of 100

Yahoo Movies: Critics: B Users: A-

My Review

Source Material: Based off Marvel comic book with the same name.

Entertaining Value:

• Action Elements: This movie has a good balance between action and drama. Personally, I didn't want to leave my seat because I felt I miss something awesome but nature did call. The action on screen was well done.

• Comedy Elements: A good bit of the humor was thrown into the film for the die hard comic book fans cause there is a good amount of cameos and references to the x-men universe, either from the comic book or from the previous four x-men films. If your reading this and saying "great I never read a x-men comic ever in my life" don't worry the film took that into consideration.

• Dramatic Elements: This film maybe a heavy action/adventure story. But there is some awesome dramatic scenes, most of them take place between Charles (Professor X) and Erik (Magneto).

• Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: This is one of the many comic book movies coming out this summer, so expect "cool" VFX shots for even "cool" superpowers. Personally some of the VFX shots are campy and a bit funny, but it is a comic book movie and the atmosphere is pose to be light and a bit humorous.

Cinematic Value:

• Acting and Dialogue: 8.5: Two guys you have to look out for Jamse McAvoy and Michael Fassbender. I willing to bet a lot of people are in the same boat I'm in when it comes to Jamse McAvoy, and that is he has been basically loved, and or respected ever since his appearance as Mr. Tumnus in Narnia. McAvoy has but out some solid performance: Atonement and The Conspirator. As far as Michael Fassbender goes he was fantastic in this role. His roles in 300 and Inglourious Basterds don't realy stand out in my mind, but that because they were smaller roles.

• Art Direction: 8: This film is not only a comic book movie but also somewhat a period film as it dose take place in the 60's during the Cuban Missile Crisis. The art and clothing do match the time period to a degree, but this film was made in the 2010's so it has some modern edge to as well. This aspect I think can be seen in the suits. The suits represent the old school blue and yellow spandex suits but with modern twist.

• Cinematography: 8: The good thing about this film was during the action scene the camera wasn't shaky. There were some notable scene were cool camera effect were use. One that stood out in my mind was the beast transformation which was done in a POV style.

• Direction: 8: The film had a decent pace. A friend of mine said he only look at his watch once to check time, but then at the same time, another friend was on the edge of her seat the entire time.

• Editing: 7.5: The editing was good, expect for the "training montage." I didn't like it because the filmmakers where trying to achieve a comic book panel type look. In my opinion this style of editing can a bit confusing to the average movie going audience.

• Screenplay:7.5: The story for this film is great, but the liberties they took on the film will piss hardcore X-Men fans aka "fanboys" off. When it comes to film continuity this film works to a degree, if you look at from the prospective that its similar to Star Trek (2009) or Batman Begins. Besides those minor facts the story was fantastic, the cameo were fantastic as well.

• Sound and Music: 8.5: The music was good

• VFX: 7: I though it was kind of weak...or campy. Lets just say its a bit silly, not silly as in looking bad like old school caymation but silly as how they used it. But then there are some spots that are awesome.

Overall: 8: This movie is good. For being a person who doesn't pay for movies often because I work at a movie theater, I would say it was well worth my 9$ admission. As a X-men movie it runs up next to the first two X-men movies. I give it two thumbs up and what not. Happy movie watching.